Tag: jess williamson

It’s getting to be spring festival season, and with warmer temperatures and longer days on the horizon, one of the leaders of the pack in terms of quirky, yet cool lineups is none other than Marfa Myths. This year’s fest will be taking place April 25-28, and while they’ve already shared a slew of great bands well worthy of the trip out to nowhere, Texas, they’ve given you yet another list of reasons to get the heck outta town for a weekend at the end of April. In addition to giants like Deerhunter, Khruangbin, Cass McCombs, Tim Hecker, Jess Williamson(amongst many more), they’ve also added Jerry Paper, Makaya McCraven,Josey Rebelle,Jess Sah Bi and Pete One to the bill. Head over to their website to scoop your tickets, plan your schedules and start making arrangements to get out to Marfa, Texas come end of April. It’s bound to be a culturally rich and weird festival that will make you hate going to other festivals…did we mention the art exhibitions that will also be there?

Saturday night, Austin welcomed some locals back into town at The North Door in the form of Loma. The band has been touring fairly extensively on their new Sub Pop debut self titled record. Having seen Cross Record a few years back, I knew that I would be in for a night of lush sounds and elegant vocals, but I wasn’t too sure as to how the new material would play out in the live setting, especially at a venue that is a little off the beaten Red River path. All doubts were erased–Loma is a force to be reckoned with, and I expect big things from this band. Click through to read some more brief thoughts on the evening.

If you haven’t been listening to Loma and their killer self titled LP, then you’ve been missing out on one of the latest and greatest new bands to surface out of Austin(ish) in the past year. Now, the members of Loma aren’t strangers to the Austin scene, as the band is comprised of 2/3 parts Cross Record and 1/3 parts Shearwater, but it’s time for us to witness this combination of Austin scenesters in this unique form for once and for all. Loma will be playing in their hometown this Saturday, April 21 at The North Door, and it’s in your best interest to go ahead and buy yourself a ticket for the very low price of 12$ while they’re still available. To top it all off, the lovely Jess Williamson will be doing the opening honors. You’re going to be out this Saturday anyways, why not enjoy some beautiful folk driven indie rock while you’re at it? Doors are at 9, get there early for a full night of tunes.

It’s a busy week here in Austin, with various releases and some festival in town. So, don’t get lost in the weeds, as we’ve got a few updates for you!

First, UVH ran a song with over at SOTO for their upcoming release with GTZ Records. This track’s got singer Larry growling atop these huge indie rock riffs. We’re really stoked on everything he’s done.

Then, perennial fanboys are we, especially when it comes to Jess Williamson. So, of course we’re going to give her new song coverage. Her new album Heart Song comes out on November 4th, ready to move us all again.

Just a few years ago, I raved about Jess Williamson‘s album, Native State, so it’s really exciting to hear that her newest effort, Heart Song, is set for release on November 4th. At play here is the strength of Jess’ voice, which gets some great punctuation by her supporting cast…check the 2 minute mark for a burst of sound that surrounds the calming vocal. I think that’s probably one of the most overlooked pieces about her work; the accents, be they drum rolls or billowing cymbals, are arranged in such a manner that one really does get the sensation that Williamson is truly a Texas artist. Looking forward to the entirety of this new LP.

Nathan and I were commenting on the plethora of shows going down this weekend, so I figured it’d be nice to lay it all out night by night for you so you know where you need to be to hear the best tunes. I’ve got all your options broken up by days and if you play your cards right, it could be a weekend filled to the brim with great local and visiting acts. See for yourself after the jump and prep with some tunes… a few more hours and it’s the weekend!

I’ve been fortunate with this site, and such fortunes continue with some friends reaching out to have me curate an hour of music featuring SXSWOfficial Austin acts that I wanted to rest of the world to know about. It also features my horrendous voice, though only for like 30 seconds total. I kind of went all over the map, trying to be as diverse as possible within the realm of my own tastes. The little show will run three times today on SXSWFM (9 AM, 3 PM, 9 PM), which is a great place to get to know some of the artists, not just the Austin ones. Here’s the artists I chose to include: Flesh Lights, Sour Notes, Jess Williamson, Roger Sellers, Mirror Travel, Shivery Shakes, Grape St, Ramesh, A Sinclair, Love Inks, Hundred Visions, Abram Shook, Ssleeperhold, The Zoltars, Warm Soda and The Eastern Sea. Just doing what I can to give a little love to our friends. Special thanks to Brett and Rory for this rad opportunity.

It’s that time of year when we all toss up our arbitrary lists of what we think is best, and seeing as we’re based here in Austin, we opted to go with our Top 15 Austin Albums first. Why 15? Well, there were a lot of great releases all over the place, covering different styles, and appealing to our different writers. Sure, the list isn’t perfect, and it doesn’t reflect singles and EPs, as that could get entirely too crazy. I included links to the labels so you can buy these albums from the hard-working folks in our town. Also…there are two releases on our label, but I have no qualms about that; I didn’t set out to put out a bad LP, so obviously, they’re going to be in here. And without further meaningless words…here’s the best records from Austin that you should already own!

There’s really only one show you NEED to go to. That’s the Ramesh album release over at the Belmont, which kicks off at 7 PM. I’ll be there, smiling, and hopefully selling LPs. But, for those of you who aren’t into Ramesh, which I completely respect, there’s tons going on tomorrow night, so here’s some places you might want to find yourself. Read more

It’s still rather early in the year to start talking about best records of the year and what not, but as we’re midway through 2014, every one is doing it…so why not join in the fun. But, with this in mind, remember that these lists are arbitrary, and if anything, pretty meaningless in the long run; you never know if your thoughts will change in six months…and really, they’re just like, our opinions man. We’ll have two sections…one for national albums and another section of Austin albums released up to this point in 2014. Read more